1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector for the insertion of a flexible flat cable, being capable of securely holding the flexible flat cable.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98.
A common flexible flat cable (FFC) is a product including a signal line wrapped in a plastic insulating film, whose most important characteristics are its flexibility, light weight and small thickness. It can be adapted to the size and shape of the internal space of an electronic product for a three dimensional arrangement of lines, and is suitable for a wide variety of light, thin and compact electronic products, such as notebook computers, CD-ROM drives, disk drives, printers or mobile phones, or the like. The flexible flat cable itself is not directly connected to a circuit board but electrically connected with the circuit board through a connector, which is fastened thereon, during use. Such a connector is generally referred to as a flexible flat cable connector.
A conventional flexible flat cable connector is illustrated in Taiwan, R.O.C. Patent Application No. 095124194. The structure comprises a housing made of insulating material, a plurality of terminals, and a movable member. The terminals are assembled within the housing, and each terminal has a pressing portion for pressing the flexible flat cable. A pressure receiving portion is provided at the other end opposite to the pressing portion. When the movable member moves toward a position for a closed loop, the movable member applies a pressure to the pressure receiving portion such that the terminal will elastically deform to enable the pressing portion to pressurize the flexible flat cable, thereby providing an electrical connection.
However, the pressure receiving portion of the above terminal has a projecting portion and a recessed portion linked with the projecting portion, such that when the movable member rotates until its cam portion is propped against the projecting portion, the cam portion can apply the maximum propping force to exactly and tightly prop the flexible flat cable. Then, the cam portion rotates into and is positioned in the recessed portion. As a result, when the movable member rotates into and is positioned in the recessed portion, the movable member is not propped against the projecting portion. Therefore, the maximum propping force is not exerted by the pressing portion so it fails to securely prop the flexible flat cable. Furthermore, due to the small area of the projecting portion, the cam portion of the movable member cannot be exactly propped against the projecting portion. This results in the difficulty of a maximum propping force exerted by the pressing portion so it fails to exactly and tightly prop the flexible flat cable, thus causing the disengagement of the flexible flat cable due to its loosening.
Therefore, to seek possible improvement on the above problem, the inventors have devoted in the research and finally have come up with an invention with effective improvement on the above shortcomings according to their related experience and observations for many years and combining with the theoretical application.